The Register editorial: NRA's position certainly is misguided

Do we put cops in every mall, theater, office building?

Dec. 25, 2012

In this Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 file photo, National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre speaks during a news conference in response to the Connecticut school shooting in Washington. The nation's largest gun-rights lobby is calling for armed police officers to be posted in every American school to stop the next killer "waiting in the wings." / Associated Press File photo

In 1999 two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado. Most Americans are familiar with the tragedy. What they may not remember: The school had an armed school resource officer and a security guard at the time. One exchanged gunfire with a shooter but failed to stop him.

That is important to note in the aftermath of a mass killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

When a tragedy strikes, there is an understandable desire to do something to try to prevent a repeat of the unthinkable. Now the National Rifle Association is calling for armed guards in every school.

The NRA’s stance on new gun-control measures following the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School — calling for more guns, not fewer guns — was stunning for its simplicity and for its lack of common sense.

This nation has now witnessed mass killings at the hands of gunmen in a high school, on college campuses, in a movie theater, in a shopping mall, in houses of worship, on the street outside the Empire State Building and now in a grade school.

Taken to its extreme, the NRA’s position would transform the United States into the equivalent of Baghdad’s Green Zone, surrounded by concrete barriers guarded by armed sharpshooters.

That is not a vision of a free country that cherishes freedom. That is a vision of a nation living in fear in armed camps because of a failure to deal with the root causes of violence and the weapons of choice for mass murderers.

The last thing this country needs is more guns in schools.

Apart from the insanity of this solution, there is no reason to believe it would make us any safer, including children in schools.

Though some schools already have such officers, their presence has not been proven to create a safer environment, and they have proven to cost taxpayers a fortune.

This year, the Des Moines school district is spending about $600,000 for six Des Moines police officers to work in the district’s high schools. Do the math on the cost to place police officers in the other schools: The district has 38 elementary schools, 10 middle schools and 10 special schools.

The Ankeny school district uses education money to hire armed, private security guards. That means there is less money for counselors, teachers and other staff, the very people who can work with students to reduce bullying and address mental health problems, which can help prevent violence later.

Currently, about 30 percent of America’s public schools have a police officer and 40 percent have some security staff. Many of these are high schools. According to the U.S. Department of Education, there are about 67,000 elementary schools in the country. Iowa’s public school districts have about 1,300 buildings. Will there be guards in all of them?

Will we next hear calls to place people with guns everywhere mass violence has occurred, from malls to movie theaters to college campuses?

As Columbine showed, an armed officer may not stop a gunman from entering a school. When a gunman arrives, an officer may be outside writing a parking ticket or busting kids smoking.

The NRA’s press conference on Friday was an opportunity to bring some rationality to the gun-control debate. Many factors contribute to the problem, from mental illness to violence in the media, but the one the NRA has some control over is the tidal wave of weapons with the capacity for mass murder. The NRA leader squandered that opportunity with a pugnacious performance in which LaPierre blamed everything but weapons.

The NRA’s hard-line stance simply set the stage for a political battle that will do nothing to make Americans safer, even if we could afford armed guards at the entrance of every schoolhouse in America.